Privacy Policy Representation in Web-based Healthcare

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) has resulted in the presence of very descriptive privacy policies on healthcare Web sites. These policies are intended to notify users about the organization´s privacy practices. However, these policies are typically not easy to read, and as a result, few people actually read them. Given the fact that these policies are not optional, but required by HIPAA, they should be presented in a more usable manner that encourages consumers to read them. This, in turn, could encourage users to feel more comfortable when interacting with online healthcare organizations. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of our study that compares various ways to present privacy management information to online healthcare consumers. The study involved a survey of 993 Internet users. We also provide recommendations to managers and Web site designers who focus on usability